Heroes 5 developers answer questions.

Hello everyone!
1. What is the developers' policy regarding polishing the game?
Good question! :up:
Generally, the development policy for the series and Heroes V in particular is determined primarily by UBISOFT as the owner of the rights to this game universe and, even more so, as our publisher.
Development prospects, in turn, depend on the sales volumes of licensed versions of the game worldwide...
It's too early to talk about possible add-ons. As for patches, we actually plan to make them more than just patches; that is, they will not only fix technical bugs but also develop the game by introducing new features and elements. In general, we intend to release patches approximately once a month.

2. Why did it take so long to release the first patch?
Strictly speaking, this question doesn't belong in this thread, but since I've had to read quite a few fantastic assumptions on this topic—ranging from it being some kind of marketing calculation to us delaying the patch solely out of spite—I want to clarify that all this additional time was spent on nothing other than testing the patch (or to be precise, several patches for different versions of the game), identifying bugs, fixing them, and testing again... :) It is a long, painstaking process that isn't always easily predictable, as the most serious bugs tend to appear just when it's thought that everything is ready and press releases can be printed—that's Murphy's Law for developers ;-)

3. What will be included in the next patch? (The question was actually about the first one, but since it's already out, I'll tell you a bit about the subsequent second and third ones)
The second patch, which should be released toward the end of June, is mainly aimed at improving Multiplayer, both in technical aspects and Gameplay. New multiplayer maps will also appear in it. It's hard to say exactly how many new maps will be in the second patch itself, but essentially, from the moment of its publication, we will start regularly releasing new maps individually without being strictly tied to subsequent patches.
The third patch, planned for the second half of July, will primarily contain an editor. By the way, enthusiasts will be able to create not only individual maps but entire Campaigns.
Naturally, both patches will contain technical fixes and some additional game elements.
In the patches, we will also continue working on improving AI and balance.

4. Will the patches be cumulative or must they be installed strictly one after another?
A final decision has not been made yet. Most likely, they will be cumulative.

5. On the world map, some objects are often covered by others—is there a plan to add a transparency setting?
Not exactly a transparency setting, but we are thinking about an alternative solution.

6. Is the current map size in the game the maximum size, and is there a plan to increase maximum map sizes in the future?
In the editor, maps of the following sizes can be created:
Small – 72x72
Medium – 96x96
Large – 136x136
Extra Large – 176x176
Huge – 216x216
Currently, Small and Huge sizes are not used in the game.

7. Will there be female character models?
No, none are planned for now.

8. Is it possible to create an in-game encyclopedia of the heroes' world, i.e., one that can be called up directly from the game?
The idea is good, of course, but considering the expected volume of such an encyclopedia, I'm afraid it would be difficult to implement... In principle, if you print the most relevant pages of the detailed same-game Manual currently being prepared, it would probably be even more convenient than constantly switching to a separate screen for a hypothetical in-game encyclopedia.

9. Doll! Doll! Doll! ...Slots! Slots! Slots! ;-)
As I've already said, we see no practical sense in having a character "doll" in the inventory window—let me try to explain why: The thing is, Heroes is not an RPG, where such a "doll" is standard because collecting various loot and constantly equipping and re-equipping your character is practically the core Gameplay. It must be understood that artifacts in Heroes are not the same as armor and weapons for characters in a classic RPG. In a classic RPG, a character without armor and weapons is not just incomplete, but practically non-viable, whereas in Heroes any hero can exist wonderfully and even win without any artifacts—meaning artifacts here only serve as bonuses; accordingly, the hero's inventory is nothing more than an auxiliary screen.
As for artifact slots, their number was consciously reduced because a situation typical of large maps—where a hero carries several boots, swords, etc. simultaneously and all of them give various bonuses—is not only strange but quite detrimental to balance, allowing for the creation of completely absurdly powerful heroes.

10. Is it true that Nival studio did the voice acting itself?
If you mean whether the developers themselves spoke into the microphone—no, those were actors :) And generally, the Russian voice acting was done by our colleagues.

11. Will the overall informativeness of the interface be increased?
- Descriptions of creature abilities (? )
Descriptions of creature abilities should appear in the second patch. (Actually, these descriptions already exist in the game, but unfortunately, they are not displayed anywhere yet)
- Descriptions of magical effects cast on creatures (? )
Double-clicking the right mouse button on a selected creature shows the magic effect cast upon it. As for a detailed description, we don't plan any for now.
- Tooltip: where units will shift on the ATB when a spell is cast (? )
There definitely won't be such a tooltip.
- When viewing abilities, show which other abilities they are needed for (? )
Actually, we consciously hid information about hero upgrade paths because, in our view, it's roughly the same as reading Walkthroughs before playing missions. Therefore, we don't plan to introduce such tooltips directly into the game, but corresponding information is planned to be added to the user manual describing game mechanics that we are currently preparing for release.
- Clarifying information directly on heroes, specifically their initiative and damage dealt (? )
The initiative of all heroes equals 10. The damage dealt by a hero is shown when selecting the attacked creature.
- For some heroes, specify in the description exactly how their innate ability modifies with level (? )
This will be done in the future.
- Will spell power be shown in the spellbook outside of combat as well (? )
Unlikely. I understand this refers to combat spells; accordingly, information about their power is primarily needed during combat.

12. Why are there so few neutral monsters in the game? Will there be mixed neutral squads?
Neutrals—that is, creatures not belonging to any of the castles—are no fewer in Five than in the originals of the third or fourth parts. As for mixed squads, perhaps we'll do it (At least personally, I like this idea :) ).

13. Will there be rated duels, or only practice?
Rated duels will be available. In general, by the end of summer, we plan work on a serious improvement and development of the duel mode. We've already gathered quite a few interesting ideas regarding this—one of the highest priorities is, of course, introducing the ability to create your own same-duel presets.

13. Will there be new castles/units? Will there be an additional alternative upgrade for creatures? Will the appearance of some creatures change?
In patches, no new units, and even less so new castles, are planned to be introduced, for quite obvious objective reasons, I think. It's too early to talk about possible add-ons. :cool:
Alternative upgrades (i.e., a situation where you can choose which creature to upgrade an existing one into) are bad because, in reality, it would likely end up being own "no-alternative" choice, as between two creatures to choose from, one will still be better than the other (otherwise they would be practically identical).
Appearance of some creatures? - Well, I don't know :-)

14. Will it be possible to use the same sophisticated scripts in the editor as those currently used in Campaigns?
Actually, when I said that the editor is being brought into a more user-friendly form for ordinary users, I didn't mean that we are now busy diligently cutting its functionality :surprise: . All existing capabilities will be preserved, including the ability to use "sophisticated" scripts and create entire hero campaigns :up:

15. Will the game be further optimized for laptops?
As I mentioned earlier, the first patch will fix a bug preventing Heroes V from launching on many laptops and generally on hardware with integrated video. As for optimization itself, laptops as a whole are objectively inferior in performance to desktop computers of formally the same level, and some special optimization for laptops is unlikely to be possible. Check this: If other modern games also run poorly on your laptop, then the problem is clearly not Heroes. So it's more a question for hardware manufacturers... As for general game optimization, we have certainly worked on it, and will continue to fix corresponding bugs as they are discovered.

16. Will other field sizes be introduced besides those already existing?
In the foreseeable future—no. Field size very strongly affects balance and the game as a whole, so you can't just add or change something here. It's enough to say that existing sizes were selected over quite some time and through fierce arguments.:insane:

17. Will some creatures hate others?
Possibly, we'll set them against each other in the future, but not for now. :)

18. Will new hero classes be introduced?
No, none are planned for now. This would require a serious balance overhaul.

19. Will duels be returned to Hot-Seat mode, and LAN to Ghost Mode?
Unlikely.

20. Will HOMM 5 be released for other platforms? For example, Mac OS?
For Mac OS, yes. None are planned for other platforms yet.

21. Will there be changes in creature characteristics? Why are level 7 creatures so expensive and weak?
In principle, individual changes are possible for the sake of balance, but they're unlikely to be fundamental.
As for the cost and relative weakness of seventh-level creatures compared to previous games in the series, this was done consciously. The thing is, in previous parts, highest-level creatures were so ultimate that simply possessing them practically guaranteed victory over an opponent who didn't have them, not to mention defenseless neutrals, and made lower-level creatures unnecessary. In the fifth part, however, you can win by betting on a large number of relatively low-level creatures, meaning you can choose between a numerous or high-level army, and this choice is not always obvious. The appeal of seventh-level creatures, considering their price, lies more in their special abilities than in being the main striking force.

22. Is it possible to make an optional disable for the castle fly-over when entering a city? Will the building interface in the city be redone/improved?
Disabling the fly-over will be done. There are no plans to radically redo the city interface. Fixing something—possibly...

23. Why aren't there beautiful texts in frames saying an artifact was taken, etc.?
The thing is, such texts were read once, maybe twice, and then simply skipped by most players, so it was decided to sacrifice them to speed up the Gameplay.

24. Why is it so hard to level up ultimate abilities? Why can't all heroes level them up? Why aren't they equal to each other?
Roughly speaking, ultimate abilities are summoning abilities—a pleasant but not mandatory bonus that can be obtained by the end of the game as a reward for extra effort; that is exactly how they should be perceived and that is why they are so hard to get, and why no path leading to their acquisition is shown in the game. Getting these abilities is like hitting 10 out of 10 targets at a shooting gallery :super:

25. Did we have ideas that for some reason didn't make it into the game but could have improved it?
Ideas, of course, there were. For example, simultaneous turn mode, which was originally planned, but simply ran out of time due to its complexity.

26. Where should we write our suggestions for the game if not in this thread?!
Actually, this thread was intended not so much to collect endless lists of game suggestions (there are more suitable places for that http://forums.nival.com/rus//topic/28106/), but rather for answers to the most relevant, interesting, and concerning questions, for direct communication and direct speech, and as a place where we could share our vision of the heroic past, present, and future, slightly outside the boundaries of official press releases ;)

Private:
1. Warlock cannot get Resistance because the prerequisites for it fill all 3 slots in Defense and there's no room left for Resistance itself or Counterspell, for which Resistance is a prerequisite.
Yes, this is a known bug. We have already fixed it.
2. What does the "Weakening Strike" ability do in the Knight's ability tree? Doesn't it improve a demonic ability?
For the Knight, it improves an analogous knightly strike. In the Russian version, it is called "Oversight".
3. Will Axel (Klaus in the English version), the Haven hero specialty, be corrected anytime soon? Currently, it looks like a legal cheat (at level 20, cavalry bonus of 50% damage for every cell traveled).
I'm not sure about "anytime soon," but we are working on it.
4. Will the bug preventing reaching level 4 of ancestral skills be fixed? For Academy—Greatest Artifact Master. The same "Pendant of Mastery" artifact solves the problem... Meaning the ability works.
This is not a bug, it's a feature :shuffle:
5. Will personal skills for some heroes be changed? For example, Nura's "Mana Replenishment" blocks all hopes for career growth. Same as Maahir and Necropolis Zoltan.
We will check and fix if necessary.

PS. "Calm! Just calm...!" (c)